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Chapter 635: Snape's Secret
Chapter 635: Snape's Secret
Umbridge handed over all the work to Filch, perhaps not only because she found the task tedious but also due to her busy schedule.
As Kyle and Connor descended the stone steps to the underground classroom for their Potions lesson, they suddenly spotted Umbridge sitting in a dark corner at the back of the room, holding that familiar notepad of hers.
The rest of the class had noticed her too, and a murmur of discussion filled the room.
"Strange, why is she here again...?"
"Are they investigating the professor twice?"
"That's unlikely, isn't it? They only did it once for the other classes..."
"Maybe it's different for Professor Snape. You know, he's not exactly popular."
"Nonsense, Professor Snape is the best!" The last comment was clearly made by a Slytherin.
Nevertheless, everyone was curious as to why Umbridge was back so soon after her previous investigation of Snape, barely two days ago.
Umbridge herself was equally curious, listening to the students' whispers and glancing down at her notepad, feeling perplexed.
Why were they all acting as if she had been there before when her notepad clearly showed no record of any investigation regarding Snape?
"Silence!"
At that moment, the classroom door was flung open.
The room immediately fell silent.
Snape strode in, glancing toward the corner, and his expression turned sour.
Kyle noticed the exchange and couldn't help but laugh.
However, Snape, alerted by the sound, spun around and glared at him fiercely.
Kyle quickly shut his mouth, but he couldn't stop his shoulders from shaking as he struggled to contain his laughter.
Connor looked at him curiously. "What's so funny?"
"It's hilarious," Kyle whispered. "Professor Snape might have outsmarted himself."
He was well aware that Umbridge only needed to investigate the other professors once; there was no need for her to sit through the same class twice.
Her presence in the Potions classroom again could only mean one thing... she had forgotten she had been there before.
In other words, Snape had cast a Forgetfulness Charm on her, causing her to forget certain things, including the results of her investigation into him.
To be honest, the effect of this Forgetfulness Charm was less than impressive. Umbridge had forgotten far too much, even forgetting that she had attended the class, which was why she was back again.
This was not at all how the spell was supposed to work.
Kyle thought that if it had been him, he would have made her forget only the necessary things... like the questions she had asked after class, for instance.
That would have been a more effective solution.
However, he was also curious about what Umbridge could have said to prompt Snape to use the Forgetfulness Charm on her.
Just as Kyle was about to share his thoughts with Connor, he looked up and met Snape's icy gaze.
The professor's eyes were cold and emotionless, as if he would kill without a second thought.
Kyle thought it best to keep quiet, so he closed his mouth and said nothing.
Only then did Snape's expression soften slightly.
"Today, we will be brewing Cheering Charm," he said, composing himself as if nothing had happened. "This potion requires a great deal of patience to brew successfully, as you must constantly monitor the color changes in your cauldron and perform the next step at precisely the right time..."
"As for the procedure..." He waved his wand, and the instructions appeared on the blackboard. "Let's begin."
Everyone immediately forgot about Umbridge and focused on their task at hand.
"Acacia flowers... unicorn hair... pepper-up potions..."
Kyle double-checked his ingredients and began grinding the acacia roots.
For the first half-hour, Umbridge remained quiet, but Kyle knew that she would make her move soon.
She glanced at the cauldrons of the students on either side.
"This class of students all look excellent." Umbridge said, "Cheering Charm is a wonderful potion, it can make us feel happy, and we need a little happiness from time to time."
"But that happiness is illusory." Snape said slowly: "And overdosing on it will have side effects..."
"I don't think that's a problem." Umbridge said lightly, "Just drink a little less, and if Cheering Charms were really that dangerous, the Ministry of Magic wouldn't have approved it for the curriculum, right?"
Snape let out a cold laugh.
"Then, have you been at Hogwarts..."
"I've been teaching here for fourteen years." Snape cut in before she could finish.
Umbridge paused, but didn't seem to mind, merely making a few notes on her notepad.
As Kyle crushed the acacia petals with the back of his knife, he tilted his head to observe them.
When Umbridge put down her notepad, he subconsciously whispered:
"Did you apply to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts first?"
The next second, Umbridge asked the exact same question, without changing a single word.
Sure enough...
This further confirmed Kyle's guess that Snape had cast a Forgetfulness Charm on Umbridge.
However, at this moment, the brewing of the Cheering Charm had reached its most critical stage, and everyone's attention was on the potion in their cauldrons. Except for Kyle, no one else noticed this detail.
The same question was asked again, which made Snape extremely annoyed, but he had no choice but to play along with Umbridge and answer her meaningless questions, in order to not attract more attention.
What happened next was also unchanged.
After questioning Snape, Umbridge started walking around the classroom, pretending to inspect everyone's potion.
The reason it was pretend was that Umbridge knew nothing about brewing Cheering Charms. She even praised a student whose cauldron contained pink potion.
The true Cheering Charm, before adding unicorn hair, should be blue.
The pink color was due to the wrong order of adding ingredients, adding the dried acacia petals first instead of its juice.
A wave of snickers filled the room, and the student who had brewed the wrong potion turned red, keeping his head down and silent. Even Snape at the front of the class curled his lips slightly, as if mocking Umbridge's ignorance.
Only Umbridge, stared blankly, not understanding what everyone was laughing about.
When class ended, everyone poured their completed Cheering Charms into bottles.
Almost everyone's potion was a pale golden color, except for the one she had praised, which was noticeably different. Umbridge finally realized that she had praised the wrong person.
However, she pretended that nothing had happened and walked towards Snape again.
Kyle's eyes lit up.
Last time, Snape must have cast the Forgetfulness Charm on her during their private conversation... This time, she would definitely say the same thing again.
Kyle deliberately lingered at the back, and as he pretended to drop a few parchments, he let them fall to the floor, intending to delay his exit from the classroom.
That was what he had done during the Transfiguration class.
However, before he could even pretend to pick them up, Snape suddenly waved his wand.
The parchments on the floor, including Kyle's, were immediately blown out of the classroom by a gust of wind.
Then...
Slam!
The classroom door was shut tightly.
(End of Chapter)
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